Monthly Archives: March 2010

The Daily Caller has a report about the lavish, and inappropriate, spending habits of RNC Chairman Michael Steele. Citing SEC filings, It says: Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women »

What is the core product of a liberal arts college? I would argue that it is the classroom experience. If so, then class attendance is one good measurement of how well a college is performing. With this in mind, and with Dartmouth alumni in the midst of Trustee and Association of Alumni elections, I reprint an article written by my daughter, Emily Mirengoff a Dartmouth senior, when she interned for »

The Iraq election results were announced on Friday. Former Prime Minister Allawi’s party won 91 seats, two more than current Prime Minister Maliki’s party. At one level, this can be viewed as a victory for what passes in Iraq as moderation. Allawi is a secular Shiite whose success in this election is down to his ability to attract Sunni and secular voters. Thus, a banner headline in the influential Saudi »

David Horovitz of the Jerusalem Post argues that the root of the current rift between the U.S. and Israel is a stark difference of perception between Washington and Jerusalem as to the Palestinian Authority’s peace-making readiness and intentions. According to Horovitz, Washington believes that the PA wants a deal and is prepared to make the compromises necessary to forge one. Meanwhile, Jerusalem considers this assessment “unfathomable.” Horovitz says that this »

Like most people, I expected passage of the Democrats’ government medicine bill to cause at least a temporary bump in President Obama’s popularity, as well as that of the legislation itself. And I thought the bounce could be substantial, since it hasn’t been entirely clear how many people didn’t approve of Obama because they thought he wasn’t getting enough done, as opposed to disagreeing with his left-wing agenda. So it’s »

Clean Government Now sums up the disaster that is Obamacare: The essence of this bill is quite simple: It makes the health insurance industry an arm of the federal government by mandating (not regulating to be clear) the terms, conditions and comparative rates health insurers can offer. In short, it tells them how to run their business and then picks up the cost where those conditions prove uneconomic. We tried »

There really are two Americas after all–one rich, one relatively poor. The Wall Street Journal explains: It turns out there really is growing inequality in America. It’s the 45% premium in pay and benefits that government workers receive over the poor saps who create wealth in the private economy. And the gap is growing. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), from 1998 to 2008 public employee compensation »

On Friday night, following Tennessee’s upset win over Ohio State in an NCAA round of 16 match-up, I asked, “Why did [Ohio State coach Thad Matta] persist in playing a 1-3-1 zone that gave Tennessee shots from five feet and in all night, and that made it difficult for Ohio State to rebound when Tennessee missed?” A reader notes that yesterday, when West Virginia stunned Kentucky in the round of »

327 members of the U.S. House of Representatives — three quarters of that body — have signed a letter expressing concern about “the highly publicized tensions” in US-Israeli relations. The letter leaves unsaid that President Obama has contributed mightily to both the tensions and their publicity, but that fact is almost too obvious to require recitation. The letter was addressed to Secretary of State Clinton, another major contributor to the »

I don’t think we’ve written about the agreement between the Obama administration and Russia on a new nuclear arms agreement intended to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The MSM is treating the agreement as the foreign policy triumph Obama needs to round-out his record. But I see nothing that warrants triumphalism. The text of the agreement has not been released, which is reason enough not to get »

The Democrats have tried to change the subject away from their health care debacle by claiming that conservatives are threatening violence against them. Their complaints are pathetic where they are not out-and-out lies (e.g., Clyburn and Lewis), and they have taken a lot of well-deserved criticism. It is liberals, not conservatives, who rely on ad hominem attacks, outrageous allegations and violent imagery. We talked about this on our radio show »

That is, the good old days before 2007, when the Democrats took control of Congress. A Goy and His Blog has pulled together a remarkable set of graphs documenting the economic progress that was being made before the Democrats took over in Washington, and the disaster that we have witnessed since. It isn’t entirely their fault, to be fair. But most of it is. When the Republicans were in charge, »

We wrote here about the consequences of Obamacare that are beginning to be felt, even before its provisions are implemented: Caterpillar said Obamacare will cost it an additional $100 million in the first year; Medtronic warned that the new tax on its products “could force it to lay off a thousand workers;” Verizon told its employees that it “will likely have to cut healthcare benefits to offset the new costs;” »

Sarah Palin was in Arizona yesterday, campaigning for John McCain in his primary contest against former Congressman J.D. Hayworth. This was an appropriate demonstration of loyalty toward the man who opened the door to fame and fortune for her. Beyond that, Palin’s support McCain is right on the merits and displays her almost unerring judgment in political matters. Like most conservatives, I sometimes disagree with John McCain, and on those »

I will be on the radio with Brian Ward from 11 to 1 central at AM 1280 the Patriot. You can listen on the web, here. We’ll discuss health care and all the news of the day. At noon central we will interview Col. Ralph Peters, author of the just-released Endless War: Middle-Eastern Islam vs. Western Civilization. Tune in; it should be an interesting conversation. »

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu must soon provide an answer to the demands President Obama lodged earlier this week. His answer is expected to be delivered shortly after the Passover seder, which takes place Monday evening. The Jerusalem Post reports that Netanyahu met with his cabinet for five hours during which he maintained that Israel must not change its policy regarding East Jerusalem, a key sore point for Obama. However, it »